Begone Dull Care
1949 · 8m · Canada
Directed by Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart
Genres: animation, experimental, musical
Tones: surreal, tense, whimsical
A pioneering drawn-on-film animation in which Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart painted, scratched, and dyed directly onto film stock to create a vivid, abstract visual interpretation of jazz music performed by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
McLaren and Lambart painting Oscar Peterson's piano runs directly onto the film strip — animation as duet. Older than most jazz lovers and still cooler than them.
McLaren and Lambart's painted-on-film visual jazz with Oscar Peterson is the cleanest case for animation-as-music in the canon. NFB hosts it officially, which is reassuring.
McLaren and Lambart painting and scratching directly on the film strip to score Oscar Peterson's trio - no camera, just the strip as performance partner with the music. 8 minutes of the most physical jazz visualization ever made.
Reviews
McLaren generates depth on his mobile canvas, giving warmth and movement to compositions resembling a constantly morphing Jackson Pollock painting, yet never fails to remind us of its very calculated aesthetics when it suddenly adapts to the score's slower movements.
The film is raucous and thrilling, not to mention gorgeous—McLaren's masterful use of scratching and painting on film stock won six international prizes between 1949 and 1954.
Festivals
- Berlin International Film Festival 1951, Silver Medal
- Canadian Film Awards 1950, Special Award